Many hours of my youth were spent in thrall to pictures
flashing by on the TV... pictures of a cat named Tom chasing
a mouse named Jerry; pictures of a coyote chasing a roadrunner.
Always there were two: a pursuer and an escapee.
I can't help but be reminded of those fond memories in considering
ArTOONic, a series of 5 minute cartoons featuring a polar
bear named Pack who spends his time chasing a clever baby
seal named Flake.
To further illustrate the concept, check the screenshot
at the top of this article. That small, polar-bear shaped
splatter on the iceberg in the center of the screen is Pack
who has come, once again, to a bad end.
If the work on the shorts so far is any indication, the
folks over at Inarc Progetti are producing really high quality
stuff on ArTOONic (check out the fur on the polar bear)
and the characters seem expressive and fun.
I'm anxious to see more.
"Every
episode will help us understand the different feelings of
the characters. We will discover, for instance, why a bear
and two seals live together in a desolated landscape. The
truth is that ARTOONIC is a beautiful eco-environment in
which Pack, Flake and Flake's mother live "peacefully"
together. Nobody can disturb them, and in spite of the continuous
conflicts between the characters, the message is that of
friendship.
The idea of ARTOONIC originates from the characters. We
chose them from the natural world and worked out their innate
behaviour to create the identity of our characters. First,
there's Pack, an awkward and funny bear, insecure but determined
to catch Flake. The rascal Flake, for her part, all sweetness
and light, is able to make the poor bear seem even more
ridiculous with each narrow escape. And in times of danger,
we will get to know Flake's mother, rounding out the trio
of characters, protecting her precious Flake in every situation.
Once we had the characters identified, though, all we had
to do was enough to insert them into their natural environment
and they almost started to live and behave on their own.
The
choice of the landscape, which reminds us of the artic land,
but represents an unreal place, is our attempt to breath
new life into a place that is generally regarded to be dull
and permanently cold and inhospitable. We sought to transform
it into an ever-changing and surprising land. The landscape
runs the gamut from realistic to stylised minimalist; from
extreme ice canyons to imaginary structures, which will
enable everyone to experience the artic in a new way.
The
13 episodes of ARTOONIC aim to entertain the audience through
gags that originate from interaction between the characters.
ArTOONic is a TV series where the classical comic spirit
is reborn."
--Daniele
Bigi , October, 2003
